Your food portions will change from meal to meal, and day to day.
Not only is it crucial for you to learn how to pay attention to your body’s signals of hunger and fullness, but it’s also critical that you comprehend why your portion sizes vary from meal to meal. With these small understandings of yourself, you’ll feel more comfortable knowing how to best fuel your individual body.
Numerous factors can affect how much you eat, and if you’re not aware of them, you may end up eating quantities that aren’t appropriate for your body’s requirements.
Gaining insight into the reasons behind your desires for a larger or smaller portion will help you determine how much nourishment you actually need.
To improve your ability to use your hunger and fullness as a guide, continue reading to learn some important considerations when determining the portions of food you eat.
The Reasons Behind Food Portions Changing
- Previous Foods Consumed (or Not Consumed)
- What you’ve already eaten, or not eaten, and how nourishing the food was for you are common factors that are likely to affect how much food you eat.
For instance, if you have purposefully or inadvertently underfed during the day, your body may experience extreme hunger, which could prompt you to consume greater portions. Because you’re so hungry after these larger portions, overeating frequently results.
Further, blood sugar spikes may occur from prolonged periods of undereating followed by extremely large meals consumed out of extreme hunger. This can prolong the cycle by making us feel generally less content and satiated
Conversely, suppose you’ve had a filling supper and would like to indulge in a dessert. You will usually naturally have a smaller piece of dessert because you ate enough at dinner. Because our hunger cues were never fully met, eating a very little meal before dessert might frequently result in a larger piece of dessert.
It’s crucial to think about how nourishing the foods you’ve selected for yourself are as well as how you balanced them throughout your meals. You’ll feel more satisfied in between meals if you’ve had a well-balanced Foundational Five meal; if not, you’ll probably feel hungry again soon.
2. Levels of Activity
On days when you’re more active, you’ll likely notice yourself needing a larger portion of food to support the level of activity you’re participating in. To accommodate this, aim for carbohydrates and healthy fats that will provide your body with the sustained energy it needs, alongside some protein that will help rebuild your muscle tissue.
When you notice yourself being more active than usual, be mindful of that so you can ensure you’re adjusting your portions to meet your needs.
On the other hand, if you’re normally very active and you’re resting or taking a break, your body won’t need as much nourishment, so you’ll want to pay attention to how your hunger changes on your less active days.
